One Rough Day
by bandgeek18
Summary: All Antonio wanted was to fish, then go home and cook a new recipe for his friends. Unfortunately, a couple of crack-heads didn't care about that.


Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers...but someday...naw I still won't own them

_*Italic indicates thought_

A/N: second one-shot! Yay! Please review! Please, please, please!

Antonio sighed happily as he put another fishing pole away. So far today had been good. He caught lots of big fish, and he had a new recipe for his friend to try. He looked out over the ocean. It was days like this that being a fisherman was just awesome.

He suddenly felt someone wrap an arm around his neck and put him in a choke-hold. Samurai instinct kicked in and he elbowed his opponent in the ribs. They released him and he spun around bringing his foot down on the attackers knee. He heard a crack and his attacker fell to the ground.

Antonio suddenly felt something hard him in the back of the leg. He fell onto one knee in pain. "Ah!" He looked around for this new attacker. Something hit him hard in the back of the head and he fell unconscious.

When he was awake again he struggled to open his eyes. He saw the foot of one of his attackers. He reached out and grabbed their ankle and pulled out. The attacker was caught-off guard and feel down, smacking their face off the ground. Antonio struggled to push himself up. Someone put a foot on his back and forced him back down.

"Ah!" He felt the foot stomp on his back, and pain shot down his spine. He cried out in pain and tried to throw his attacker off. One of them kicked him in the face multiple times with all his strength, until Antonio's vision went black.

-One Rough Day-

When Antonio was conscious again he could barley move. He rolled over onto his back and pushed himself up into a sitting position. There was no sign of his attackers. He looked around and moaned. "Oh, come on!"

His cooler was turned over with his fish and ice spilled everywhere. He got up painfully and limped over to his cooler. He turned it right side up and looked for his equipment, but all his fishing poles were gone. "Great," he sighed. He knelt down and dug through the remaining ice in his cooler. "Dammit!" he said banging his fists on it. He got up and put his hands on his pockets, then checked his neck. "Freaking great," he muttered.

Sighing he kicked all the fish and ice into the water. He grabbed his cooler and started limping back to the Shiba House.

-One Rough Day-

When he got home Antonio tried to avoid his friends. He opened the door and slipped in, shutting it quietly behind him.

"Hey Antonio!" Mia said.

The gold ranger jumped. "Oh, hey guys," he said, back turned to them.

"What's up?" Mike asked. "Catch any good fish?"

"No. Not today. They just wouldn't bite." He turned and tried to walk to his room.

"Antonio," Jayden said. "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah," Antonio said, face still turned away from his friends. "I'm just tired. Busy day and all."

"I thought you didn't catch anything?" Kevin asked.

Antonio flinched. _Shoot! _"Um...Yeah. it was just tiring trying to catch them."

Jayden shook his head slowly, never taking his eyes off of Antonio. _ He's a terrible liar._ The red ranger noticed how Antonio kept most of his weight on his left leg, and he thought he could see blood on the back of Antonio's shirt. "Antonio, are you ok?"

"Of course," Antonio said. "Fantastico. Really."

"Tell me the truth," Jayden said getting up.

"I am," Antonio said.

Jayden walked over and stood in front of his best friend. "Antonio," he said. The gold ranger looked at the ground. "Antonio."

Antonio sighed and raised his head so he was looking up at Jayden. The rangers gasped. Antonio's face was swelling and bruised.

"Go get Ji," Kevin said to Emily who nodded and ran to find him.

"What happened?!" Jayden demanded, leading Antonio over gently to sit down.

"I-"

"Antonio what happened?!" Ji asked coming in with Emily.

"I was robbed," Antonio said.

"What?" Emily asked in disbelief as she sat down again.

"I- ow!" he said as Ji touched his face gently.

"Sorry. How did the robber do this?"

"Well they kind of beat me," Antonio said.

Ji inspected the wound on the back of his head. The blood was mostly dry now and it didn't look to bad. He touched the back of Antonio's swollen right knee.

"Ow!"

"Sorry," Ji said. He got up and left.

"Wait they?" Jayden asked.

"Yeah. There was more then one. Two by my count. One of them tried to choke me out, but I threw him off and then the partner came over and hit me with what felt like a metal pipe."

"Geez," Mike said.

"What did they take?" Emily asked as Ji returned.

"Everything," Antonio answered. "My lock box, my fishing poles, my other equipment, my wallet, my pandent."

"Gosh," Mia said.

"You're telling me," Antonio said.

"Put this on," Ji said handing Antonio a knee brace. "I think you'll have a concussion, so it's probably best to take it easy the next few days."

"Ok, thanks," Antonio said, slipping the knee brace on.

"So they basically took all your money?" Kevin asked.

"Yup," Antonio said nodding. "All of it."

"How much was it?" Mike asked.

"Um...close to eight hundred dollars."

"Huh?" Mia asked.

"It was all the money I've made this week, and the money I've been saving for the last two years."

"That sucks," Mike said.

"Why would they do this?" Emily asked. "I mean, they attacked you and robbed you."

Antonio shrugged. "It happens. When you're a vendor and you're alone, people will attack you. They'll think your an easy target."

"That's not very nice," Kevin said.

"It's the truth. Today it's me, tomorrow it's another unfortunate fisherman."

"That's not right," Jayden said.

"It's the real world, amigo."

"Wonder why they wanted to rob you," Kevin said.

"For drug money," Antonio said. "They smelt like weed. Bad. Just a couple of crack-heads that wanted to get high."

"Then why take your fishing poles?"

"Probably to pawn them. Same with my pendant."

"Were sorry Antonio," Mia said.

"It's ok, this wasn't your guys' fault. I'm just happy they didn't have a gun."

"You ok?" Jayden asked when Antonio put his head in his hands.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. I'm gonna go lie down."

"Ok," Jayden said. "Well wake you up in a little while."

"Ok," Antonio said. He got up and limped out of the room. He went his room and shut the door behind him. He shut the curtains so it was dark and collapsed onto his bed. Hot tears ran down his face as he lay there. He wasn't sure how much time had passed before there was a soft knock on his door.

"Antonio," Jayden said, poking his head in. "You hungry?"

"No," Antonio said.

Jayden heard the tremble in his best friend's voice. He walked in and shut the door behind him. He sat down on the edge of Antonio's bed, a little unsure of what to do. Comforting people was not something he was good at. "What's wrong?"

"It's just frustrating," Antnio said sitting up. "I work hard everyday and these two...jerks...Just get all my money. They stole the money I've spent two years saving for my fish restaurant. Two years! And they stole my pendant! That was a family heirloom! And my fishing stuff is gone which means I can't fish until I manage to find, at least one fishing pole."

Jayden didn't say anything for a minute. He simply wrapped his arms around Antonio and hugged him. The gold ranger leaned on his best friend, feeling that having Jayden to lean on made him feel a little better. "Listen," Jayden said gently. "Tomorrow we're going to go out and start searching every pawn shop in the city. We'll find your fishing poles, and pendant. I promise. And I'll give you back the money they took."

"Jayden-"

"No. No argument. Tomorrow that's what's going to happen. For now though, your going to calm down, and come eat dinner with us because everyone is worried about you, and we both know you don't want them to see you break down like this."

"Ok," Antonio said nodding. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Ok."

"Alright then," Jayden said pulling Antonio to his feet. "Come on. Tomorrow will be better. I promise."

"Ok," Antonio said smiling.

No matter how bad his day had been, Jayden had helped him feel better.


End file.
